The PDC Pro Tour season draws to a close this Thursday, 5 November. The Mattioli Arena in Leicester is hosting Players Championship 34, the final of the 34 events in the 2026 season, with 128 players taking part and the first match kicking off at 13:00 GMT.
For many mid-table players, this day is about more than just a title: it will decide the final places for Minehead and will have a significant impact on the Pro Tour standings as the World Championship approaches.
Humphries is on a roll
The day before, Luke Humphries won the Players Championship 33 by defeating Niels Zonneveld in the final. It is his fourth Pro Tour title of 2026, and he clinched it whilst still recovering from food poisoning, which adds another dimension to his week.
The result also says a lot about Zonneveld’s run. The Dutchman wasn’t the favourite in Leicester, but he held his own right up to the final match, in a leg format where consistency counts for more than big plays. In a 128-player field, reaching the final means winning six or seven knockout matches in a row without any real dip in form.
What this final day will decide
The Players Championship rankings are separate from the World Order of Merit: they only take into account results from the Pro Tour and are used to determine the field for the Players Championship Finals. The top 64 after the 34 stages head to Minehead, from 27 to 29 November, for a tournament with a prize fund of £750,000.
This is where the real tension of the day lies. Gary Anderson and Gerwyn Price took advantage of Wednesday’s stage to strengthen their claims on a place in the top 64, whilst Humphries broke into the top 10 of the rankings following his title win. Conversely, Nathan Aspinall has withdrawn from the final two stages, ruling him out of the chance to defend his place on the cut-off line.
A single strong performance can turn things around: the gaps in the Pro Tour rankings are closing fast, and a player ranked just behind the cut-off line can climb two or three places in a single afternoon, whilst another might be knocked out in the first round and slip down the rankings.
The World Championship in the background
The Pro Tour season also serves as a qualifying route for the 2027 World Championship, and the final points on offer in Leicester are crucial for players who have not yet secured their place at Ally Pally. Sky Sports highlights that Raymond van Barneveld is edging closer to the World Championship following this week’s event in Leicester, a topic of great interest to both the Dutch public and regulars on the circuit.
The schedule offers no respite: after Leicester, the PDC moves straight on to the Grand Slam of Darts, then Minehead, before London in December.
The Grand Slam qualifiers close tomorrow
The Tour Card Holder Qualifier on Friday 6 November is the final gateway to the Grand Slam of Darts. It will complete the 48-player field for the Wolverhampton tournament, scheduled for 14, 22 November, with a prize fund of one million pounds for its twentieth edition.
In other words, two days will decide the end of the year: Leicester for the Pro Tour standings and the Minehead field, then the Grand Slam qualifier for the final stretch before the major events in November and December.
